Report of the Secretary-General, 2 May 2001. The role of the United Nations in promoting development, particularly with respect to access to and transfer of knowledge and technology, especially information and communication technologies, inter alia, through partnerships with relevant stakeholders, including the private sector.

The Global Information Technology Report 2001-2002. Readiness for a Networked World, edited by Geoffrey Kirkman (Harvard University), Peter Cornelius (WEF), Jeffrey D. Sachs (Harvard University and Klaus Schwab (WEF). This major report can now be downloaded chapterwise free of cost from the web. In addition, the Executive Summary by Geoffrey Kirkman, the foreword by Bruno Lanvin and the preface by Klaus Schwab are available separately on the Harvard University website.

s-asia-it, a newsletter on ICT for Development in South Asia. s-asia-it is the most extensive newsletter on ICT for Development in South Asia, published by the Asia Pacicif Network Information Centre, APNIC, one of four Regional Internet Registries in the world, responsible for providing vital resource allocation and registration services to the Asia Pacific Internet Community.

AGORA Access to global online research in Agriculture. The AGORA site provides access to over 400 journals from major scientific publishers in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA is available to students and researchers in qualifying not-for-profit institutions in eligible developing countries.

Aidworld. Aidworld is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making the world-wide-web accessible over poor communications networks

Budapest Open Access Initiative. The Budapest Open Access Initiative arises from a small but lively meeting convened in Budapest by the Open Society Institute (OSI) on December 1-2, 2001. The purpose of the meeting was to accelerate progress in the international effort to make research articles in all academic fields freely available on the internet. The participants represented many points of view, many academic disciplines, and many nations, and had experience with many of the ongoing initiatives that make up the open access movement. The initiative has been signed by the Budapest participants and a growing number of individuals and organizations from around the world who represent researchers, universities, laboratories, libraries, foundations, journals, publishers, learned societies, and kindred open-access initiatives.

Computer Aid International. Computer Aid International is a non-profit organisation registered as a charity with the government in England and Wales. It is the world's largest and most experienced non-profit supplier of quality refurbished Pentium computers to non-profits in developing countries. Computer Aid International has supplied over 27,000 fully refurbished PCs to where they are most needed in schools, colleges and community organisations in more than 80 different countries.

e-ForAll: A Poverty Reduction Strategy for the Information Age. Pervasive poverty and inequality amidst plenty is the major threat to prosperity, stability and peace at the dawn of the 21st Century. Notwithstanding extensive discourse about the digital divide, most information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives start by encouraging nations to become e-ready: to boost economic growth and increase e-commerce.

eNRICH website. eNRICH is a generic and yet easily customizable browser that acts as a gateway to a community’s own world of knowledge, communication and empowerment. It enables communities to quickly and efficiently build their own gateway website, enriched with their own local content and connected to knowledge sources and services that are tailored according to their own information and communication needs. eNRICH is a product designed by National Informatics Centre, Government of India based on an idea conceived by UNESCO.

GetWeb : Bellanet's for Web to E-mail services. The Bellanet list contains several GetWeb addresses and instructions how do get websites through e-mail. This is specially valid in case of poor connections. These servers are operated as a public service to help people who can't access essential information on the web. Overuse and abuse very often cause them to crash or be taken offline. Please don't use the machines for frivolous requests.

GetWeb page of Satellife. SATELLIFE's GetWeb server allows you to request the text content of World Wide Web pages through e-mail.

Reflections on the Debate: Topic #8: Open Access to Scholarly Publications: A Model for Enhanced Knowledge Management? Prepared by:Helen Doyle and Andy Gass, The Public Library of Science.

As the recent gpgNet Web Forum made clear, a growing and diverse global constituency argues that the world’s scholarly literature is insufficiently accessible, and that the problem is remediable. Electronic publishing and the Internet, itself, seemingly offer the promise for academic and scientific findings to be made available at little or no cost to users around the world…

Right to Information. Published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in July 2004, this 39-page guidance note was written to assist UNDP programme offices in the design and implementation of right to information programmes.

The vision of the DAISY Consortium is that all published information is available to people with print disabilities, at the same time and at no greater cost, in an accessible, feature-rich, navigable format. Its mission is to to develop the International Standard and implementation strategies for the production, exchange, and use of Digital Talking Books in both developed and developing countries, with special attention to integration with mainstream technology, to ensure access to information for people with print disabilities. The acronym stands for Digital Accessible Information SYstem. DAISY is a globally recognized technical standard to facilitate the creation of accessible content. The standard was originally developed to benefit people who are unable to read print due to a disability, but it also has broad applications for improved access to text in the mainstream.

Aidworld. Aidworld is an independent, not-for-profit organisation dedicated to making the world-wide-web accessible over poor communications networks. See also the description of the tool in the BBC news technology pages

Free/Open Source Software: Localization. This primer provides a broad perspective on the localization of Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) for the benefit of policy- and decision-makers in developing countries. It highlights the benefits and strategies of FOSS localization, along with case studies from various countries that are on the road to software freedom.

FSF/UNESCO Free Software Directory. The Free Software Directory is a project of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). We catalog useful free software that runs under free operating systems — particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants.

Information for Development (i4d). The i4d (Information For Development) print magazine is one its kind, and is intended to provide a much-needed platform for exchange of information, ideas, opinions and experiences, both inside and outside the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D) sector. While several electronic publications do currently exist, i4d is perhaps the first that addresses the need by utilizing the strength and potential of the print media

International Open Source Network. The Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme (APDIP) launched the International Open Source Network (IOSN), which will serve as a Centre of Excellence on Open Source technologies and applications. It will aid countries in sharing information on Open Source (OS), assist with the development of needed toolkits and resource materials, support "localization" efforts and, generally, help facilitate and co-ordinate OS programmes and initiatives through networking.

License fees and GDP per capita, the case of open source in developing countries. There is a strong case for free software (also known as open source or libre software) being deployed widely in developing countries. As argued in this note, the open source development community provides an environment of intensive interactive skills development at little explicit cost, which is particularly useful for local development of skills, especially in economically disadvantaged regions.

SEUL (Simple End-User Linux) home page. The end goal of SEUL is to have a comprehensive suite of high-quality applications (productivity applications as well as leisure/programming applications) available under the GPL for the Linux platform, as well as a broader base of educated users around the world who understand why free software is better. SEUL is a volunteer project currently focusing on Linux in education, Linux in science, advocacy documents, managing and coordinating communications between projects, and hosting related development projects.

The GNU website. This website (a classic) of the Free Software Foundation contains also links to the Free Software Foundation Europe and India.

A selection of major documents and links on civil society by ELDIS. ELDIS is a gateway to information on development issues, providing free and easy access to wide range of high quality online resources. It is managed by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, is a leading centre for research and teaching on international development.

CIVICUS. CIVICUS is an international alliance established in 1993 to nurture the foundation, growth and protection of citizen action throughout the world, especially in areas where participatory democracy and citizens' freedom of association are threatened.

Panel on Civil Society. The Panel has concluded its work and launched its final report on 21 June 2004 at UN Headquarters in New York and in Geneva. The following links provide copies of the Report and press materials from the launch event.

Community Information Network for Southern Africa. CINSA is a pilot project designed to support community ICT projects in the SADC region through networking, training, service brokerage, technical support, creating a resource base and assisting with project evaluation.

Guide to Rural Telecentres Published in Brazil. A “Guide to Rural Telecentres” (Guia Gemas da Terra de Telecentros Rurais) was recently published by the Brazilian NGO Gemas da Terra. The Guide, that was produced with resources from UNESCO’s Information for All Programme, is aimed at helping Portuguese-speaking communities to establish community multimedia telecentres in rural areas.

VOICES for social change, website of the Indian NGO. VOICES, a unit of Madhyam Communications (a registered non-profit trust), was set up in 1991 as a development communications organisation working towards the empowerment of the disadvantaged and marginalised sections of society.

AGORA Access to global online research in Agriculture. The AGORA site provides access to over 400 journals from major scientific publishers in the fields of food, agriculture, environmental science and related social sciences. AGORA is available to students and researchers in qualifying not-for-profit institutions in eligible developing countries.

Antyodaya Pathway of Bridging the Digital Divide, by M.S. Swaminathan. Anthyodaya or 'attention to the poorest person' is the pathway Mahatma Gandhi described over 60 years ago. He wanted all involved in formulating developmental policies and strategies to adopt a bottom-up approach. In this article, Prof. M.S. Swaminathan, the founder of the Green Revolution in India, explains how this principle is applied in the ICT4D strategy of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai, India.

Background and Perspective. An article by Aditya Dev Sood from the Centre of Knowledge Societies, Bangalore, on the Information sectors in India, the feasibility of technology-driven social change in South Asia, infrastructure bottlenecks, focus areas of development, ICTs impact on rural economies and the future digital development, thw whole with a lot of useful links.

ICT Development Library. The Commonwealth TelecommunicationTelecommunications Organisation's ICT Development Digital Library (ICT DevLibrary) provides a unique collection of ICT-for-development reports and documents for policy-makers and practitioners in developing countries. It uniquely provides direct, “one-click” access to these documents, and makes these often bulky documents accessible to users on low bandwidth connections. Stocked with key reports published by the leading organisations in the field, the ICT Development Library supplements ICT Development Agenda, the CTO’s web-based newsletter which provides breaking, objective updates on the outcomes of decision-making meetings and summaries of important new reports.

Improving Development Effectiveness. Concern for global stability and prosperity requires development efforts that achieve measurable results. Desirable outcomes can include raising greater numbers of people out of poverty, achieving higher levels of education for more people, and lowering infant mortality rates. Countries need to focus on such results so that they can make better policy decisions and design better strategies for their own development.

Jagriti.com. Jagriti is a platform for application of Information Technology for the masses, with special focus on the needs of Rural areas.It aims at deployment of IT Enabled Services for education, agricultural information, health, e-governance and other location-specific needs. Jagrithi is franchising Kiosks (Telecenters) in India.

Nayudamma Information Bank. The Nayudamma Information Bank contains information about and easy access to technologies supported by IDRC - technologies from the South for the South. Providing contact names for all the technologies described, it is a way of sharing and updating information on technological advancements for international development.

Open Knowledge Network (OKN). OKN is an initiative of the DOTForce: the Digital Opportunity Task Force set up by the G8 Heads of State to make a decisive contribution to bridging the digital divide. OKN has since been adopted by the UN ICT Task Force. The OKN consortium is made up of: OneWorld.net, IICD, IDRC, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Accenture and the Berkman Center of Harvard Law School.

Technology Empowerment Network. Technology Empowerment Network, TEN, is a virtual community of CEOs and other leaders who volunteer to help bridge the digital divide by supporting social entrepreneurs in under-served areas. TEN members offer their time, insight and expertise to help bring information technology to schools, businesses and civil society in poor communities around the world

The Petersberg Prize. The prize aims to recognise exemplary contributions in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT) for development. It will be awarded during the Development Gateway Forum, which will take place in 2004. Deadline for submissions is 1 February 2004.

The World Summit in Reflection. Information Technologies and International Development will be the premier journal in its field, focusing on the intersection of information and communication technologies (ICT) with international development. We aim to create a networked community of leading thinkers and strategists to discuss the critical issues of ICT and development, an epistemic community that crosses disciplines (especially technologists and social scientists), national boundaries, and the North and South hemispheres.

Digital Divide Network. DDN serves as a catalyst for developing new, innovative digital divide strategies and for making current initiatives more strategic, more partner-based and more outcome-oriented, with less duplication of effort and more learning from each others' activities. The shared knowledge base that emerges from DDN will go a long way toward establishing the right benchmarks for judging the effectiveness of digital divide initiatives. As a nonprofit leader in addressing the digital divide, the Benton Foundation serves as producer and coordinator of the Digital Divide Network.

Monitoring the Digital Divide, and beyond. An ORBICOM - CIDA Project. In their preface to the report, Jose-Maria Figueres, Chairman of the UN ICT Task Force, and Bruno Lanvin, Manager of infoDev at the World Bank say: ‘The Orbicom report is a remarkable attempt to offer a global set of indicators (infostate) showing how the availability of ICTs and access to networks can be a misleading indicator if it neglects people’s skills, and if ICT networks and skills combined (infodensity) are not matched by a measurement of what individuals, business and countries actually do with such technologies (info-use). It also offers important perspectives into the central role that e-policies and knowledge have started to play in determining how countries will fare in the global competition to benefit from the information revolution and move away from poverty’. A French version is also available on http://www.orbicom.uqam.ca/index_en.html .

The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC) strives to become the foremost international forum for practitioners, teachers, researchers and policy makers to share their knowledge and experience in the design, development, implementation, management and evaluation of information systems and technologies in developing countries.

The Senior Net Digital Divide page. The mission of SeniorNet is to provide older adults with computer education and access to computers and the Internet in order to enrich their lives and enable them to share their knowledge and wisdom with the world. SeniorNet believes that the senior segment has been neglected in the Digital Divide. In order to close the gap, SeniorNet has partnered with the eBay Foundation, IBM and The Charles Schwab Foundation to provide education and programs that focus on the needs and interests of older adults.

UN ICTs Benchmarking Tool. The ICT benchmarking tool was developed to provide policy-makers in developing countries with a useful interactive tool to assess their countries' ICT capabilities in terms of connectivity and ease of access and to compare them against those of other countries. Designed with a flexible and open-source system, the ICT Benchmarking tool allows users to configure the parameters to suit their specific needs.

Austrian Experts to Discuss Long-term Preservation in the Digital Era. The instability of the Internet is an additional risk for knowledge accumulated in the html format. The need to safeguard this relatively new form of documentary heritage calls for international consensus on its collection, preservation and dissemination which resulted in the adotion of "UNESCO Charter on the Preservation of the Digital Heritage"

GBDe Recommendations 2003. TheGBDe (Global Business Dialogue on electronic commerce) 2003 recommendations note that ‘as the impact of the Internet has moved beyond the developed world, there is increasing concern about its potential effect on culture and society. In addition, issues such as cyber security, unsolicited electronic communications (also known as spam), and piracy continue to demonstrate the need for improved international cooperation. The first phase of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS), commencing in Geneva during December, 2003 will be an important process for highlighting emerging Information Society issues’.

UNCTAD "Measuring the Information Society" website. The Electronic Commerce (E-Commerce) branch of UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) launched a new web resource during November 2003 called Measuring the Information Society: Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Indicators for Development. ‘Measuring the Information Society’ is an interactive site for information on the development of statistics and indicators related to ICTs, which allows practitioners from all countries to exchange views and best practice in the field of information society statistics, and to work towards common definitions, indicators and measurement frameworks. Its creation sprang from the ‘Measuring Electronic Commerce as an Instrument for the Development of the Digital Economy’ meeting held in Geneva (Switzerland) from 8-10 September 2003. In particular, it is intended to help monitor progress made between the two phases of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) held in Geneva during December 2003 and Tunis in November 2005.

UNCTAD E-commerce and development report 2003. This third edition of the E-Commerce and Development Report, published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, identifies some of the implications that the growth of the digital economy may have for developing countries. It aims to provide practitioners and policy makers with a better understanding of the options available to them in leading sectors of developing-country economies. It is also meant to contribute to the debates at the World Summit on the Information Society and efforts to create a truly inclusive information society that serves and empowers all people (from the inagural text by Kofi Annan)

on E Commerce and Development. It consists of 12 commentaries written by IS researchers and practitioners, each of whom comments on the report - either on a single chapter, or else on the report as a whole. The Journal can be found here . Click on "volume 11".

Education and literacy

Bridges to the Future website. The Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI) will address the Digital Divide of education and technology in emerging economies by improving literacy, basic education, and technological literacy, thereby assisting the world's poorest peoples to better determine their own social and economic future.

ICTLiteracy.org home page. This Web site is the “public face” of a fast growing international movement focused on promoting Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Digital Literacy. This website, created by the Kempster Group, provides a rich, centralized portal for the repository of ICT Literacy resources, highlights innovative efforts and partnerships promoting ICT Digital Literacy, and facilitates the interaction between researchers, business, government and educational segments. New surveys, studies and reports on ICT literacy will be presented on the site.

Learningchannel.org. LearningChannel.org is a OneWorld themed portal, which brings together organisations and audiences involved in the challenges around education today.

Literacy.org. Literacy.org is a gateway to electronic resources and tools for the national and international youth and adult literacy communities. This site is jointly sponsored by the International Literacy Institute (ILI) and the National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education.

MIT Everyware. Every lecture, every handout, every quiz. All online. For free. Meet the global geeks getting an MIT education, open source-style. When MIT announced to the world in April 2001 that it would be posting the content of some 2,000 classes on the Web, it hoped the program - dubbed OpenCourseWare - would spur a worldwide movement among educators to share knowledge and improve teaching methods. No institution of higher learning had ever proposed anything as revolutionary, or as daunting. MIT would make everything, from video lectures and class notes to tests and course outlines, available to any joker with a browser. The academic world was shocked by MIT's audacity - and skeptical of the experiment. Read about the outcome today, September 2003 in this WIRED article

Multimedia Training Kit, from itrain online. Supported by ItrainOnline partner UNESCO, the MMTK aims to promote and support linkages between new and traditional media for development through a structured set of materials. The materials are based on a standard set of templates, and are intended to be used as building blocks from which trainers can build up training workshops appropriate for their own contexts

REFLECT Website. REFLECT is an innovative approach to adult learning and social change, which fuses the theories of Paulo Freire with the methodology of Participatory Rural Appraisal.

Resources for policy-makers / decision makers on ICT in education: policy and practice. This resource pack is a collection of web resources assembled and annotated by the UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education (UNESCO Bangkok) in support of a recent planning workshop for educational policymakers on issues related to ICTs in education. This resource pack aims to provide a comprehensive selection of informative, relevant and up-to-date resources for policy-makers and decision-makers on ICT in education, with both a global view of how ICTs can transform education, with specific emphasis on the Asia and Pacific region.

Schoolforge home page. Schoolforge's mission is to unify independent organizations that advocate, use, and develop open resources for primary and secondary education. Schoolforge is intended to empower member organizations to make open educational resources more effective, efficient, and ubiquitous by enhancing communication, sharing resources, and increasing the transparency of development.

Tataliteracy.com website. The programme has been developed by Tata Consultancy Services, Asia's largest software enterprise, and it operates under the aegis of the Tata Council for Community Initiatives. The CBFL project uses a mix of methods to teach an uneducated person to read in a fraction of the time it takes to do this by conventional means. At the actual stage, programmes are available in 5 Indian languages.

The "elephant schools" of Thailand. In an effort to reach education to the three million illiterate people in far-flung areas of Om Koi district and integrate them into the mainstream, Thailand's Non-Formal Education Department came up with the novel idea of using pachyderms and modern ICT under the project, "bringing school to the children". The project is at the forefront of a unique campaign to reach education to three million people in Thailand's remote corners.

UNESCO Bangkok, ICT for Education in Asia and the Pacific website. UNESCO Bangkok’s ICT for Education in Asia and the Pacific website is a comprehensive site on ICT for education in Asia and the Pacific. It provides up-to-date information dealing with the use of ICT in education in the region. The dynamic new site offers easy-access webpages, searchable databases on resources, news and events, projects, organizations, teacher training on ICT, indicators, powerful searches, etc.

WWWEDU. WWWEDU (pronounced 'we do') is the Internet's largest and longest-running forum on the use of the World Wide Web in education. Founded and moderated by Andy Carvin of the Benton Foundation (acarvin@benton.org).

Districts of India website. The Districts of India Portal features among other variety of citizen services to facilitate government-public interaction and strengthen e-governance at the grass-root level. It is an endeavour of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) of India to provide a one-stop source for all the information about Districts of India at one place on the web. A very significant value addition in the form of Citizen Services attempts to bridge the gap between government and public in day-to-day administration. The Portal operates on a Participatory Model soliciting citizens' direct involvement in updating the Portal through Citizen Services Registration.

e-Govenment Bulletin from Headstar.com. E-Government Bulletin from Headstar.com is a email service covering electronic public services, 'teledemocracy' and the information society in the UK and worldwide. The Bulletin is a free, independent publication, aimed at everyone in government, local government, the social sector and their private sector partners

Logging on in Belandur. Belandur Gram Panchayat in Karnataka, India, which is the first in the State to computerise its administration, finds that e-governance cuts costs and removes corruption, among other things.

SustainIT Newsletter website. SustainIT is an initiative of UK CEED, a research foundation. It conducts research on, and provides best practice examples of, synergies between ICT and sustainable development. It is supported by British Telecom (BT).

Declaration of the GKP forum on ICT and Gender. More than 300 participants from around the globe gathered at the "Forum on ICTs and Gender: Optimizing Opportunities" in Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur end of August. In their declaration for WSIS, they stressed the importance of ICT as a tool to promote women's empowerment, rights and dignity and full participation in the information society.

GenderIT.org. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are being used by women’s organisations to communicate their own agendas and perspectives in order to effect women’s empowerment and social change.

SIGIS Strategies of Inclusion: Gender in the Information Society. SIGIS is a project funded by the EU Information Society Technologies Programme (IST). This project has analysed 30 initiatives and related processes of gender inclusion, partly to study the strategic features, partly to learn from relative successes, and partly to provide a knowledge base to support and encourage development of new inclusion efforts. This is needed to safeguard the development of an information society for all, but it is also an important prerequisite of commercial success of many new ICT projects.

Aid Workers Network. Aid Workers Network links relief and development field staff to share support, ideas and best practice. This web site is being developed by a team of experienced aid workers to provide a comprehensive resource for busy field workers needing practical advice and proven resources to help with their current work.

Community Based Care for Separated Children. Worldwide, children can become separated from their parents, caretakers, and communities as a result of armed conflict, natural disasters, pandemics such as AIDS, and various forms of exploitation and abuse.

Dateline Earth: Journalism as if the Planet Mattered. Kunda Dixit's claim is that issues like jungle families sickened by mine tailings, peasants adversely affected by global free trade, countries impacted by toxic dumpsites, and general environmental neglect, are often ignored.

Emergency ITN Distribution and Retreatment, Mozambique. Following the extensive flooding that affected southern Mozambique during February 2000, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with UNICEF and several NGO partners (SCF-USA, WVI, LWF, ADPP, Oxfam, Concern, Merlin, World Relief), distributed 200,000 ITNs to flood-affected families in conjunction with participatory communication for malaria. These nets were distributed free of charge.

Information Management System for Mine Action. IMSMA is the information management system is developed by the Centre for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology (ETH) Zurich on behalf of the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining and is part of Switzerland's effort to strengthen humanitarian demining.

Satellife, the Global Health Information Network. SATELLIFE has frequently been recognized for its accomplishments as a pioneer and leader in the international development community. SATELLIFE was recently named: Winner, 2002 Stockholm Challenge Award in Health, Finalist, 2002 Digital Partners Social Enterprise Laboratory Award, Finalist, 2002 ICT Stories Competition sponsored by infoDev and the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD).

WorldVistA. WorldVistA is a non-profit corporation with the mission of furthering the cause of making affordable healthcare information technology available worldwide. WorldVistA aims to further this mission by championing and promoting the deployment of the VistA System as part of an open-source free software (OSFS) stack.

Human Rights Internet. Founded in 1976, HRI is a leader in the exchange of information within the worldwide human rights community. Launched in the United States, HRI has its headquarters in Ottawa, Canada. From Ottawa, HRI communicates by phone, fax, mail and the Internet with more than 5,000 organizations and individuals around the world working for the advancement of human rights. HRI is dedicated to the empowerment of human rights activists and organizations, and to the education of governmental and intergovernmental agencies and officials and other actors in the public and private sphere, on human rights issues and the role of civil society.

Human Rights Net. The aim of the Human Rights Net site is to provide a platform for human rights organisations and networks. Here you will find the homepages of NGO's and information on their activities and publications.

Human Rights Ressource Center. The Human Rights Resource Center is an integral part of the University of Minnesota Human Rights Center and works in partnership with the University of Minnesota Human Rights Library.

Human Rights Window. The HUMAN RIGHTS Window provides a specific focus on the information related to HUMAN RIGHTS on The Communication Initiative website.

Untying the gordian knot. How can ICT help strengthen peace processes?. This study focuses on the use of new information and communications technology (ICT) to augment traditional conflict transformation techniques. It argues that much of the literature on ICT fails to treat it as one factor among many that shape inter-state and intra-state relations in developing countries. The author seeks to address this by critically exploring the underlying assumptions of the creative use of ICT in peacebuilding interventions, drawing on a case study of Info Share, an ICT initiative involved in the peace process in Sri Lanka. The study identifies conflict transformation as a necessary bedrock of successful ICT interventions, and discusses key challenges and limitations of such interventions.

ICTs for MDGs (internationally agreed development goals as set down in the Millenium Declaration)

How ICTs can help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Goal 8 includes a target to make available the benefits of ICTs to all the world's inhabitants. As well as this commitment, ICT can play a major role in achieving most of the other goals. The role of ICT for each goal is suggested in column 2. This text is designed to be used to compile information on best practices in using ICT to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that would help development practitioners identify what works and replicate success stories.

Poverty and e-Readication by Bruno Lanvin and Christine Zhen-Wei Qiang. The year 2000 saw the launch of two major international efforts, which are now expected to converge. One was the “Digital Opportunity Task Force” (DOT Force), initiated by the G-8. The other was the adoption by the UN General Assembly of a new set of development targets, called “Millennium Development Goals” or MDG, to be achieved by 2015.1

The MDG Dashboard, developed by the European Statistical Laboratory. The "MDG Dashboard" presents these indicators in a highly communicative format aimed at decision-makers and citizens interested in the Millennium Development Goals and Sustainable Development. This free database provides 60 indicators for ca. 200 countries and 15 years (1990-2004) based on original UN Statistics Division data.

Working Party on ICT Indicators and MDG Mapping. An informal working party was established by the United Nations ICT Task Force in April 2003, led by the Canadian government, to examine the impact of ICT on the international development agenda and more specifically, the impact of ICT in furthering efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

or promoting the use of ICTs in their work, but who have not necessarily been involved in national level policy processes previously.

Global E-policy resource network (ePol-NET). ePol-NET provides a focal point for global efforts in support of national e-strategies for development. The initiative, presented as WSIS in December 2003 at Geneva, brings together Partners from a range of organisations around the world who contribute e-strategy and e-policy information and expertise for the benefit of individuals, organisations and governments in developing countries.The network provides ICT policymakers in developing countries with the depth and quality of information needed to develop effective national e-policies and e-strategies.

ICANN. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is a private sector initiative to assume responsibility for overseeing the technical coordination of the Domain Name System (DNS), which allows Internet addresses (for example, web pages and email accounts) to be found by easy-to-remember names, instead of numbers. Incorporated and headquartered in California, ICANN is a non-profit corporation structured to make decisions on the basis of Internet community consensus. As ICANN's start-up phase progresses, its Board of Directors will be elected in part by a global membership of individual members of the Internet community, and in part by supporting organizations representing the business, technical, non-commercial and academic communities.

ICANN Announcement regarding certification of "At-Large Structures", 16 December 2003. In an important step towards fulfilling the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN's) objective to have informed, structured participation of the individual Internet user community ("At-Large"), six organizations in three geographic regions have received "At-Large Structure" certification. Certification recognizes that the following groups meet ICANN's criteria for involving individual Internet users at the local or issue level in ICANN activities and for promoting individuals' understanding of, and participation in, ICANN.

ICT Policy, a Beginners Handbook, Association for Progressive Communications, Ed. Chris Nicol, December 2003. This book by APC lays out the issues and dispenses with the jargon to encourage more people to get involved in ICT policy processes. It is for people who feel that ICT policy is important but don't know much about it, e.g. a government official worried about a gap in her technical knowledge of how the internet works, a human-rights worker concerned that his need to send secure email is being challenged by national government policy, a citizen fed up with paying exorbitant rates for dial-up internet access and ready to organise… The book can be downloaded from the website at no cost (zip-file).

Ideology and policy: notes on the shaping of the Internet by Katharine Sarikakis. This paper considers some of the ideologies that are shaping Internet policies. It addresses the priorities of international policy initiatives and identifies their discursive constructions. It takes stock of some of the most characteristic policy directions that seek to define the Internet and its uses within an agenda of predominant privatisation.

Who rules the Internet? Understanding ICANN. Internet governance is becoming an influential factor in the way we access, consume, produce and exchange information. As an internet governance working group prepares to meet in advance of the World Summit on the Information Society, Panos London launches the first brief of its WSIS media toolkit.

The Open Knowledge network. The Open Knowledge Network (OKN) is a human network, which collects, shares and disseminates local knowledge and is supported by flexible technical solutions.

The Public Knowledge Project. The Public Knowledge Project is a research initiative located at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. It seeks to improve the scholarly and public quality of academic research through innovative online environments

Website of the World Bank on knowledge sharing. Knowledge sharing at the World Bank has evolved over time. From an early emphasis on capturing and organizing knowledge, its focus now is on adopting, adapting, and applying knowledge in a way that helps World Bank staff, clients, and partners work more effectively to reduce global poverty.

Centre for International Media Action. This website is designed as an information-exchange and networking center for people and organizations who are challenging the corporate-driven media through activism, education, research, organizing and policy advocacy.

Deliberative Democracy Consosrtium. Deliberative democracy strengthens citizen voices in governance by including people of all races, classes, ages and geographies in deliberations that directly affect public decisions. As a result, citizens influence--and can see the result of their influence on--the policy and resource decisions that impact their daily lives and their future.

Logolink. LogoLink is a global network of practitioners from civil society organisations, research institutions and governments working to deepen democracy through greater citizen participation in local governance. LogoLink encourages learning from field-based innovations and expressions of democracy which contribute to social justice.

Making the Net Work. Making The Net Work aims to help organisations, centres, neighbourhoods or networks plan and use the Net effectively.

Participation toolkit. The toolkit offers information on tools which promote citizen participation in local governance. Over hundred of cases are described and analysed. The site also presents articles and links for further reference

Resource Centres for Participatory Learning and Actkon Network. The RCPLA website aims at bringing together a diverse, international network of development practitioners to strengthen impact on processes of social change, by sharing field experiences, facilitating capacity building and encouraging the use of participatory practices.

Teledemocracy Action News + Network TAN+N. The TAN+N website of the Global Democracy Movement is primarily dedicated to the creative use of modern technologies (ICT) and face-to-face deliberative techniques in all forms that directly empower citizens to have authentic input into political systems at all levels of governance around the world.

The Community Planning Website. This well structured website provides an overview of these new methods of community planning. It is aimed at everyone concerned with the built environment. Jargon is avoided and material is presented in a universally applicable, how-to-do-it style.

The Loka Institute. Loka works to make science and technology more responsive to social and environmental concerns by expanding opportunities for grassroots, public-interest groups, and everyday citizen and worker involvement in vital facets of science and technology decision making.

Damocles.org. The Damocles Network, the legal arm of Reporters Without Borders, has launched this new site in French and English entitled Toolbox. Designed for professionals but also for the use of anyone interested in freedom of expression, www.damocles.org carries basic texts that guarantee press freedom, along with extracts from codes of ethics.

The World Summit in Reflection. Information Technologies and International Development will be the premier journal in its field, focusing on the intersection of information and communication technologies (ICT) with international development. We aim to create a networked community of leading thinkers and strategists to discuss the critical issues of ICT and development, an epistemic community that crosses disciplines (especially technologists and social scientists), national boundaries, and the North and South hemispheres.

Bisharat! A language, technology and development initiative. Bisharat! is an evolving idea based on the importance of maternal languages in sustainable development and the enormous potential of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) to benefit efforts in the area of language and development. Anticipating the gradual introduction of computers and the internet to rural communities in Africa, the current focus of Bisharat is on research, advocacy, and networking relating to use of African languages in software and web content.

Catalysing Access to ICT in Africa (CATIA). The Catalysing Access to ICT in Africa (CATIA) programme aims to enable poor people in Africa to gain maximum benefit from the opportunities offered by Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and to act as a strong catalyst for reform. It will support a package of strategic activities to improve affordable access to the full range of ICTs, from Internet to community radio.

Connectivity Africa homepage. Connectivity Africa (CA) was announced during the 2002 G8 Kananaski Summit. It will build on Canada's experience in connectivity projects in Africa and adapt Canadian expertise and models to the needs of African countries, particularly in education, health and economic development. Connectivity Africa is being implemented by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), in partnership with the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

Soulbeat Africa. A project of Soul City and the Communication Initiative, Soul Beat Africa aims to be a space for communicators across Africa to share experiences, materials, strategic thinking and events, and to engage in discussion and debate. This site is meant for communicators, practitioners, media makers, academics, researchers, and others who are using or are interested in communication for change in Africa. The site focusses specifically on Africa, providing an opportunity for the unique experiences and issues of the continent to be shared and debated, while helping to strengthen communication for development and social change.

The Association for Progressive Communications. The Association for Progressive Communications (APC) is an international network of civil society organisations dedicated to empowering and supporting groups and individuals through the strategic use of information and communication technologies, especially internet-related technologies.

Akshaya.net. Akshaya net is a project implemented by IT Department, Government of Kerala with Private Sector Participation. It is one of the most ambitious ICT programmes ever attempted in developing countries.It endeavours : to bridge the digital divide in Kerala, to propel Kerala as India’s foremost Knowledge Society,to impart basic IT literacy to at least one member in each of the 65 lakh families in the state, to generate and distribute locally relevant content, to Improve public delivery of services and to catalyse all sectors of IT industry in the state.

The Brides.org case studies website. The ICT-Enabled Development Case Study Series aims to disseminate best practice examples of how information communication technology has been successfully used by ground-level initiatives to alleviate poverty. Case studies are an effective tool for examining what works best, what fails, and why. The intention of this series is to share knowledge and catalyse lessons learned about ICT by local organisations and the international community. The current focus is on efforts based in Africa. The case study series is a joint initiative of the International Institute for Communication and Development (IICD) and bridges.org, two organisations that share the goal of encouraging the effective use of ICT in developing countries.

The Petersberg Prize 2004. The Petersberg Prize is focused on innovative use and impact in the use of ICTs for social and economic development. The Petersberg Prize 2004 will recognize the most exemplary contribution in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for development during the last ten years. The awardee will receive the €100,000 Prize. Deadline for nominations is March 22, 2004.

The Stockholm Challenge Award Website. By highlighting some of the best ICT projects the World over, the Stockholm Challenge helps bring out new models for the information society of tomorrow. The Stockholm Challenge, together with the IICD ICT Stories competition ( http://www.iicd.org/stories/) are the two major sources for ICT success stories.

Public Sector Transparency: What Works?. This Special Report on Public Sector Transparency illustrates current international trends in advancing transparency through civil society, government and the media. Through extensive interviews with leaders across a range of sectors as well as survey feedback from Development Gateway users, this Report explores the practical issues of ensuring openness in governments around the world.

Transparency International Sourcebook 2000. The first version of this Source Book (now translated into over 20 languages) argued the casefor a "National Integrity System", an holistic approach to transparency and accountability andembracing a range of accountability "pillars", democratic, judicial, media and civil society.

Youth Awards at WSIS. The Youth Creating Digital Opportunities Coalition and the Youth Caucus are coordinating an important international awards program for WSIS. It will reward and showcase Youth led ICT4D projects in areas such as health, education, environment, rural and human rights, including a $10,000 overall award sponsored by the Global Knowledge Partnership